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Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION

City woman charged for spreading HIV

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 06/6/2012 11:25 AM | Last Modified: 06/6/2012 4:32 PM | Updates

By Aldo Santin

A Winnipeg woman is the first woman in Manitoba to face criminal charges for allegedly passing HIV to a sexual partner.

The RCMP said they’ve charged Majorie Deborah Schenkels, 25, with aggravated sexual assault.

RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Line Karpish said Schenkels was charged May 31 following a four-month investigation after a man filed a complaint with the RCMP Gimli detachment.

Karpish said the man complained he believed he had contracted HIV after having sexual intercourse with a woman. The man said that after having sex with the woman, he began feeling sick, sought medical attention and learned he had contracted HIV.

Karpish said officers conducted a detailed investigation. Karpish would not say if police forced Schenkels to undergo medical tests but added that medical evidence and other evidence was obtained to satisfy officers that a charge should be laid against the woman.

Schenkels could not be reached for comment. The allegations have not been tried in court and Schenkels remains innocent.

Schenkels was released on a promise to appear in court June 25 in Gimli, with a series of conditions applied to her release. Karpish said one of the conditions is that she is prohibited from having sexual intercourse until the matter is resolved.

While three men in Winnipeg have been charged with transmitting HIV to a sexual partner, this is the first time a woman has faced such a charge in Manitoba.

"In my 20 years, this is the first time we’ve ever seen a charge like that," Karpish said.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1998 that HIV-positive individuals who knowingly have unprotected sex can be charged with aggravated sexual assault. A spokeswoman for the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network said Schenkels is the 14th woman in Canada to face criminal charges for allegedly passing HIV to a sexual partner. The organization said that police across the country charge about 10 people a year, most of them being men, with transmitting the virus.

HIV is the virus that causes AIDS, a condition that leads to the failure of the body’s immune system. The most common form of transmission is through unprotected sex but the risk of female-to-male transmission is considered far lower than male-to-female transmission.

While HIV was once considered a death sentence, available treatments now permit infected individuals to live longer with the virus.

In Manitoba, health officials estimate there are between 1,000 and 1,500 people living with HIV, and about 100 new cases each year.

Karpish would not say when the alleged sexual contact between the man and Schenkels took place.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca